twentyhood.

The State of Me

Tue 20 Mar 2007 – 9.57

In the mode of my college days, when I would record these journal-like entries on a slightly-more-frequently-than-seasonal basis, here comes a bit of relfexion and thought on the state of things.

First things first. As you have no doubt noticed, I have become pretty active on my various blogs. At this point, I’ve got three up and running and I’m adding content to them multiple times a week. It’s nice to have all the content segregated by relevance in a very “lid for every pot” way. But what’s lacking from all three blogs is some quantity of original content, like this which I am writing at this very moment. Clearly, I have opinions on stuff — from design, to money, to life in the City, and being a twentysomething. Yet I don’t express it as much as I should. Nearly every article I read about promoting your blog/podcast says, very close to the top of the list, post often and consistently. That’s a challenge in and of itself, but making the content original and unique is just as much of a challenge, if not moreso.

Similarly, I’ve re-designed two of my three blogs. Well, perefox.com isn’t quite done. But I upgraded the Wordpress version and created a new theme. Spent a lot of time figuring out how to embed movie files (which I still haven’t quite licked). Developing a theme in my “spare time” is a bitch, lemme tell you, forget about developing a new logo and identity, graphic style, etc. Man, this shit takes time. But it’s happening, slowly.

Although I’ve been active with my blogs, I have been in a massive slump in every other regard. The problem is, I don’t know how to get out. The things that usually relax or inspire me seem old hat, and I am caught in a place where all I can see is my mountain to climb, and not the path. It is a problem that plagues all creatives, and all people for that matter, but these days everything is clocked down the to the minute — timesheets and alarm clocks are constant reminders that we don’t have to time to be ‘off’. It’s a bit of a pickel. So I do what I do and try to recreate an environment where I am comfortable at all times. Part of that is music…

Music is awesome. This is not new. But lately it seems that everyone is paying closer attention to the music they are listening to. Last Friday, Debbie Millman, aribter of the Design Matters podcast, spoke about the songs of her youth, and how the association to emotional and memorable moments was so potent when associated with a specific tune. Paul Boag, podcaster and web designer, recently attended the South by Southwest conference and talked on his ‘cast about one of the seminars he attended. Dan Rueben spoke about the influence of music of web design, especially how different people listen to different musics and there designs show it! And of course Todd Henry, from the Accidental Creative website always says that if you’re slumping you should change your music — switch from rock to classical to jazz to country, and see what happens.

So I’m thinking to myself, “yes, I should be listening to more music”. And new and varied music as well. But when the Hell do I have time for that? Considering all the TV programmes I watch (on the computer) and podcasts I listen to (like the three mentioned in the previous paragraph), it seems I have more than enough ear candy to last through the day. Trouble is, I can’t get inspired by talk the way perhaps used to. Has the magic of podcasting faded? Am I back to where I began Freshman year at Drexel when I would type random words into Napster and see what came back. (Those were the days!)

Jessica remarked the other day about how we all have such massive music libraries on our computers, yet we are bored of it all. Considering how much I listened to music at University and Grad School, I quite agree. And this was before I had an iPod! Sometimes I’m just not in the mood for those 12-minute Charles Mingus alternate takes, no matter how much they rock.

At home, and at weekends, I find that the podcasts are rather distracting. They prevent me from reading magazines and the like, and obviously video podcasts occupy my eyes, hindering me from doing whatever I need to do when at home. It seems that my addiction is starting to take its toll. I work well to music, but not when I’m bored with it. It’s a strange balance. As is my nature, growing increasingly-obsessive, I find it difficult to unsubscribe from podcasts. I feel like I will be missing info and entertainment. I feel that since I’ve “made friends” with the hosts/producers, I would be somewhat betraying them by leaving. So I collect podcasts like it’s my job, and it’s terrible. Still, there are a few that I’ve said “goodbye and good riddance” to over the years.

I’ve talked before about new and old media and how commercial TV and Radio suck. I think when I came back from England, having spent a year watching commercial TV and listening to commercial radio, I wanted to get as far away from that as I could. In spite of the fact that I am vaguely a part of the advertising profession, I love the fact that I have freed myself from advertising content on both audio and visual media. The Internet has landed.

I think the solution is simple. In order to be more productive and more energetic, I need to explore new music and listen to more of it. I’ve already started by subscribing to some new music podcasts such as The Not Lame Podcast and Audio Surgeon. I used to listen to Glastonbury Podcast, but left after it became more chat than music. Maybe I’ll give it a shot again. Internet radio is always an option — I remember fondly the days when I would listen to Beatles-a-Rama or Jazzmusique (now Flaresound)or The Spirit when I worked at Drexel. That was, of course, before podcasting was even a word.

This past weekend, at St. Patrick’s Day, when we were crammed into Connelly’s on 45th St. like drunk sardines, I was talking with Amy and she kind lit a fire under me. Or rather did the tales of her man, Jason, who wakes up at 6am to work on his blog and his other writing projects. Todd Henry wakes up at 5! I’ve always thought this was crazy, but so is staying up till 1am every night trying to get things done when you’re exhausted from the day. Maybe it makes more sense to try and be productive/creative at the start of the day, and take it easy (weightlifting and American Idol) after the sun goes down. Today I did this. I woke up at 6, and by 8:30 when I left for work, I had done about 45 minutes worth of legitimate work. Not very productive, but I blame that on the wake up schedule — which is going to take some time to get used to. I figure I’ll give it a week and see what happens. If I feel better and more productive by this time next week, than I’ll keep it going — otherwise, back to bed for me.

So that’s a bit of what’s on my mind these days. An increase in blogging activity, although lacking original content. Less productive in matters of design, perhaps due to a flatline in musical inspiration. Too many podcasts? Maybe I’ll be better if I listen to more music and wake up at 6 am. We’ll see where things go. Maybe yet another Winter of Discontent will melt away to reveal something nice. For a change.

posted by Scott in careers, life, music, this website.